The West Virginia University Department of Art is pleased to announce a call for entries to the 3rd annual West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival. We seek independent, unique and compelling work in film, video and animation. All interested artists, filmmakers, multimedia enthusiasts are encouraged to submit work for consideration. Students submissions are also encouraged. Send us your work!

The Political Division Theme
In an effort to draw attention to the increasingly divided and partisan character of contemporary experience and public discourse, festival organizers have established a category for works in any genre that explore issues relating to the extreme polarization in contemporary politics and culture. These works should strive to recast controversial or divisive issues, revealing a new perspective or a new way of framing debate, or to focus attention on the antagonistic character of contemporary politics. How can art reframe and recast polarizing issues, helping us to see them in a new light? How can art create space for new conversations about difficult subjects?

No Entry Fee!!!

Regulations

There are no rules governing content or artistic approach. There are no entry fees for submission of work. We only seek to celebrate well-crafted, compelling or conceptually challenging works in video, film and multimedia. The only restriction for competitive entries is a 20-minute maximum running time.

Awards
Modest awards have been established by the festival organizers to recognize work of exceptional accomplishment. They include a $300.00 Best of Festival award, and five $100 awards in each of the festival categories: Best Documentary Short, Best Narrative Short, Best Animation/Experimental, Best Student Production, and Best Political Division Theme.

Location/Dates
The 2012 West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival will be held on Friday, April 20th in West Virginia University’s the Gluck Theater and on Saturday, April 21st in the Bloch Hall Auditorium of the Creative Arts Center.

Jury
Each festival submission will be carefully reviewed by a screening committee of practicing, professional artists and filmmakers.

Method of Submission
The deadline for submission is April 1, 2012. All entries must be accompanied by a completed entry form which can be downloaded from the festival website: www.mountaineerfilmfest.org

Entries may be submitted in one of 4 ways:

1. Send by mail a standard definition DVD (NTSC, any region)
2. Send by mail a your video on a data DVD (.mov or .avi)
3. Upload your full resolution video file to Vimeo.com and make the original source video available for download (in privacy settings). Email the URL link to your video to wvmsff@gmail.com along with entry form. You must email your entry within one week of uploading your video in order for us to be able to download the original file, uncompressed by Vimeo.
4. Upload your full resolution video file (Quicktime or .avi) using: dropbox.com. Follow uploading and sharing instructions. Send download link in email to wvmsff@gmail.com along with entry form.

Works mailed-in should be sent to:

West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival
School of Art and Design
College of Creative Arts
West Virginia University
PO Box 6111
Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6111
USA